In case you missed it, the Cubs acquired RHP Jacob Turner last week for two non-prospects. Turner’s stock has really fallen off since 2012, when his name was being tossed around as a potential centerpiece from the Tigers in a Matt Garza trade and was eventually a big part of the trade that brought Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante to the team. For three years between 2010 and 2012, Baseball America ranked him as a top 30 prospect, and only two years later, he finds himself in the land of the DFA’ed.

Looking back on his minor league career, there were some warning signs, as he never really did figure out how to strike out minor league hitters. And over 2013-2014 combined, Turner made 32 pretty-bad starts with the Marlins. His strikeout and walk rates have been bottom of the barrel (though his groundball rate has been very good). This year, he has split time between rotation and the bullpen. The Marlins eventually decided they had seen enough, and were going with Brad Penny(!) instead.

On the whole, though, this seems like no risk acquisition for the Cubs. Turner is still only 23, and consistently throws his fastball at around 93 mph. The only problem is that the team is suddenly overflowing with backend rotation candidates, and Turner is out of options. It will be interesting to see whether they try to get him a few starts this season, and what changes they will be able to work out with him at the major league level.

Quick Links

• If you haven’t been paying attention, the Royals are reenacting 2013, all the way down to the presence of a talisman.
• The Padres finally hired a GM, A.J. Preller from the Rangers, despite a mysterious Cedric Daniels file in his past (with the international acquisition market playing the role of the Western District).
• That lawsuit challenging MLB’s territorial rights system (not the O’s-Nats one, the other one) is going to trial.
• It sounds like Fangraphs is beefing up their prospect coverage. Kiley McDaniel will now be running things. Is this a response to the BP juggernaut?
• A great piece of writing from Pat Jordan on the decline of the curveball.